Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

Paul wrote to the church he had founded in Galatia, “Who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 3) In his absence, the church had started to follow some other form of the gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, which they knew to be true. They were under a spell of false teaching and Paul had to break through the smoke and mirrors to reach them.

He began with questions. And so, I have a question for “Christian” trump supporters: what if you’re wrong?

In all of this profound disconnect between how you see things and how I see things; what if you’re wrong?

If I am wrong, then I backed the wrong horse and maybe over- reacted to some things based on my desire for justice and equality and how I try to follow Jesus. If I am wrong, and my desires for change and equality go unmet, I have to live with that. If I am wrong and I misjudged trump, then I will have to eat my words and watch for him to do the amazing things he has bragged he would do (although the price we’ve paid already for some of his decisions go beyond politics and economics for me.)

But if you are wrong…If you are wrong, then you have followed a hate-filled and corrupt man into decisions that harm millions of people. You have supported ideas that put “others” in a terrible position to be oppressed and mistreated. You have made a moral choice to abandon the call of the Gospel of Jesus and replace it with “America First.” You have taken the “golden rule” and transformed it into a “golden calf” that you worship instead of Jesus, because you see a more immediate pay-off.

You have chosen to believe that “nationalist” is suddenly good and not associated with fascist regimes like Hitler and Mussolini.

If you are wrong, you have given the okay for fear-mongers to tap into the distrust and violence which is always simmering just below the surface, and to whip white Americans into a violent frenzy.

If you are wrong, then you will bear the burden of knowing that you chose to hang on to an ideology that is shaped like a gun and you tried to fashion it into the cross.

What is this alchemy that you seem to embrace? What dark, magic arts are you employing? It is bewildering! How can you take a sexist, racist, dishonest, misogynist, failed businessman and turn him into a hero? Who has bewitched you? What “hocus pocus” is this?

The phrase “hocus-pocus” came to be some sort of magical incantation that fake magicians used to distract their audience from some trick they were doing. The origin of the phrase “hocus pocus” came from a mocking of the words used in the Latin mass during communion which say “Hoc est corpus meum,” This is my body.

Taking the power of the presence of Christ in communion and turning it into a joke and a mockery. The sleight of hand and distraction go on. The mocking continues as we watch those who would take the body of Christ and try to turn it into some political weapon to oppress and do violence to the least of these.

What if you’re wrong? What hangs in the balance for you? If you are not bothered at all by these questions, then I fear for and pity you most of all.